Promoting Excellence in the Discourse on Europe. Since 1995, the Erasmus EuroMedia Awards are granted to outstanding media productions contributing to the development of a European society and value system. [learn more]

Special Award on Aesthetical Discourse

Sagrada – The Mysteries of Creation

Stefan Haupt (Documentary)

The international jury has assessed this product to be the best in terms of educational media on European culture and values.

The documentary „ Sagrada – The Mystery of Creation“ by Stefan Haupt illustrates the genesis of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Barcelona. For more than 100 years The Sagrada Familia has been a superlative construction area.

Normally we see a cathedral or a church in its finished form, a witness of days long gone by. By contrast, the construction of the Sagrada Familia is anything but complete. The building is still emerging and growing to this day and has been doing so for the past 125 years.

In his film Stefan Haupt illustrates the biography of this edifice which is anything but completed, he talks of the changes in the original construction plans and varying inputs of many people, who to this day have contributed to this building.

Stefan Haupt follows the creation process of the Sagrada from its beginnings up until today. As one of the crucial aspects of the film he poses the question of where the origin of the example of architecture lies founded, i. e. what kind of a person was the father of the “Sagrada”, Antoni Gaudi.

Contemporary witnesses themselves who experienced Gaudi’s work on the building are given the chance to speak and he interviews people, who scientifically evaluate and explain his work: art historians, cultural scientists and professors of architecture.

In doing so, a comprehensive image of a star architect emerges, whose motivation becomes apparent through conversations and interviews.

In this sense, this film is more than a documentary, it tells the story using beautiful and quiet images of the transformation of ideas, talks of human endeavour for perfection and in so doing, illustrates that the essential meaning of this edifice lies in its creation process and not only in its completion.
This creative process is illustrated in varying perspectives from inside the incomplete church as well as the complex structure of the exterior parts of the church.

The film gives cause for self-reflection on how the past and present are related, portraying people and destinies involved in the construction of the church and ultimately proves that something incomplete also has its own significance.

On these grounds the jury has awarded the film “Sagrada” the “special prize for outstanding performance on cultural history”.